Businesses or individuals seeking services, advice, and products (“seekers”) frequently ask friends, colleagues or acquaintances to recommend or validate candidates for the services, advice, and/or products (“providers”). The goal of seekers in making the inquiries is to increase the chances of choosing a quality provider and minimize the corresponding risks associated with making a poor selection. The seeker can obtain direct information from the providers based on in-person meetings and proposals. The seeker can also use several traditional channels to reach friends, colleagues or acquaintances, including in-person meetings, phone calls, emails, and instant messaging.
As the needs of seekers become more and more specific, there is a growing demand for specialized services from providers to be provided on an as needed basis. Further, as more and more services are extended through an online environment, seekers have a wider group of potential providers from which to choose. This has several advantages such as removing geographic limitations, increased competition for price and quality, breadth of available services, and more mediums of interaction between seekers and providers. However, trying to find increasingly niche skill sets within this expansive group of providers from across the globe makes it less likely that traditional channels will be able to provide reliable recommendations. Specifically, it may be more difficult for the seekers to locate acquaintances who can vouch for the providers.
Current online service and product delivery systems have used a variety of tools and capabilities to address the challenge of selecting a provider, including community ranking of the provider, individual feedback ratings for a provider, money back guarantees, online tests taken by providers, and provider self-examination. However, these tools still lack the level of confidence provided by personal referrals.